23.02 | Jews & Gentiles
Romans 2:12-3:8
‘For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts…’
Romans 2:13-15
I’ve a bit of a marital habit of joining Lydia halfway through a movie (I’ve also a habit of leaving halfway through a movie, but that’s a different conversation). When you join a movie halfway through, there’s normally a few themes you can pick up, and there’s always a lot you can’t. Keen to catch up on the movie, I drop in occasional questions to bring me up to speed.
The questions aren’t always welcome.
Our reading today walks into a backstory that had been running for nearly two millennia. It’s a subject that most of us don’t personally touch on in its direct biblical form, although invariably touch on in our own modern variations. It’s going to be helpful for me to catch us all up quickly, or the rest of Romans (and a significant part of the rest of the New Testament) won’t make a great deal of sense. You’ll find yourself feeling disoriented. You’ll want to interrupt the movie.
The backstory is the great ethnic division of people in the Bible up to this moment:
Jews and Gentiles.
Jews were all that was left of God’s faithful people in New Testament times. They’d carried the promises given to Abraham, looked to live by the Law of Moses, and were the descendants of the tribe that included King David, Solomon, and the kingly line that led right down to Jesus as the promised Messiah King.
Gentiles were pretty much everyone else. They hadn’t incubated the promises made to Abraham, hadn’t received the Law of Moses, and hadn’t been expecting a Messiah. Every part of those treasured Jewish customs—Law and sacrifice and temple and Sabbath and Passover and prophets and all of it—had gone on with the Gentile world largely oblivious.
And so, when Jesus sent His Church into all the world, to make disciples of both Jews and Gentiles, it caused some friction. Inevitably there were questions of which laws or customs the Gentiles should (or shouldn’t) uphold.
But amidst all these discussions, there was one great danger: an assumed hierarchy of value.
Jewish believers above; Gentile believers beneath.
Business class, and economy seats.
The best, and the rest.
In the pages to come, we’re going to find the Early Church had a lot of work to do in straightening all this out.
As Lydia does for me with a movie, let me give you the highlights. Paul holds two essential truths in tension in virtually all of these discussions:
First up, he wants to deeply honour the Jewish roots of Christianity. As a trained rabbi and devout Jew, Paul is steeped in the Scriptures and story of Israel. From these ancient roots, he knows the extraordinary significance of what God did with Abraham, Moses, David, and all the rest. He knows that these stories led to the recognition and interpretation of the person of Jesus. Every story pointed to Him, as the climax of Scripture and the focal point of history. The Jewish roots of the Christian faith are deeply precious to Paul because they all led to Jesus.
But he also directly contends any sneaking pride or implicit hierarchy in this. He critiques the idea that having the Law (Jews) is the same as keeping the Law, and emphasises that many Gentiles lived righteously (even if they hadn’t a clue what was written in the Old Testament). He counters even the slightest notion of of hierarchy or superiority, rather elevating Jew and Gentile alike to the highest honour of being sons and daughters in the Kingdom of God. Brothers and sisters. Family. Paul urgently wants every Gentile to know that the story of the Old Testament has now, utterly and deeply and as truly as it could for anyone, become their story.
Extraordinary honour of the ancient story.
Extraordinary honour of each follower, utterly irrespective of race or background.
The vision of the intercultural church had begun.
Reflect:
When we become Christians, we often think that we’re bringing God into our story.
Paul would argue that, rather, we have been brought into His.
How does this deep backstory change how you live today?
Pray:
Father,
When I think about it
I realise that actually there is something mind-blowing
That I am now included in your Story;
That Abraham of the starry hillsides,
And Moses with his stone tablets,
And David with his giant-killing slingshot,
Are no longer distant stories for me;
They are my forebears;
They are my family;
They are my spiritual heritage;
I join them in Your Story.
And then, Lord,
I think about it a little more,
And I see all the little hierarchies of value that I put in place;
I compete and compare;
I make assumptions of value;
I continually measure whether I’m a little higher,
Or a little lower.
Lord,
Straighten me out;
Cure my sick heart;
Establish me as a person of both stature and humility,
Beloved among the beloved,
In your unfolding Story.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Leviticus 21-23 | Proverbs 8:12-21